Case trimmer

ABSTRACT

A motorized case trimmer is disclosed having a lever operated case holder and a motor driven trimming blade. The motor and blade are slidably mounted upon rails for quick and easy movement to provide sufficient clearance for loading a case into the case holder. A motor handle further simplifies the movement of the blade and motor whereby a simple one-step motion of the handle moves the blade and motor and locks them into a retracted position. Releasing the motor handle, permits the motor and blade to slide freely along the rails under urging by a pair of springs. The components of the case trimmer are mounted upon an elongate platform that permits adjustability of the position of the components for accommodating various size cases and for adjusting the cutting force of the blade against the cartridge case.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention pertains generally to the art of reloading rifle and guncartridges, and more particular relates to the art of trimming thelength of cartridge cases to prepare them for the reloading operation.

2. Description of the Related Art

When a bullet is fired from a cartridge or resized during reloading, thecartridge case expands radially and longitudinally. Thus, duringsubsequent reloading of a cartridge case it is necessary to resize it sothat a bullet may be properly seated and so that the reloaded cartridgewill freely and fully enter the chamber of a rifle or gun. Special diesand jigs are used for resizing the radial dimensions of the case. Casetrimmers are used to trim cartridge cases to their proper length.

Prior art case trimmers generally provide a collet for grabbing a rim,or head, of the cartridge case. Typically, the collet is tightened ontothe case by a threaded hand crank which pulls the collet into a reducingdiameter chamber, thus closing the collet onto the case. Prior art casetrimmers also have a cutting blade mounted on a shaft that is slidablethrough a fixed collar. With the case and blade shaft aligned along alongitudinal direction, the blade is set against a mouth of the case androtated by a hand crank to precisely and evenly trim the case to apredetermined length. An adjustable collar may be used as a jig so thatit is only necessary for the operator to turn the blade against the casein a rotating manner until the adjustable collar abuts against a stopthereby preventing further cutting of the blade against the case whenthe proper length is achieved.

Prior art case trimmers require several turns of the collet adjustmentscrew to lock a case in position and require many rotations of the bladeto properly trim the case to length. Often, bullet reloaders will reloadhundreds of cartridges in one session which can make the repetitive taskof tightening the collet onto the case and cranking the blade againstthe mouth of the case very time consuming and tedious. Thus, there is aneed in the industry to provide a case trimmer in which the case iseasily loaded into the case trimmer and the cutting operation issimplified without loss of precision or adjustability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The above-identified problems are solved by the present invention byproviding a case trimmer that can receive cases by simply actuating alever, sliding a case into the holder and then releasing the lever. Inaddition, the present invention provides for a motorized cutting bladethat is directly coupled to a motor that is mounted on a pair of railsfor simplified adjustability and quick setup without any loss ofprecision in the trimming operation.

The present invention replaces the collet used in the prior art with acase holder having a spring-loaded receptacle for receiving the head ofa cartridge case. The receptacle is moveable by a lever which moves thereceptacle outward away from an abutment so that the head of the casecan slide into the receptacle. By releasing the lever, springs urge thereceptacle back against the abutment thereby holding the case.

The trimming operation is accomplished by a trimming blade that isrotated by a motor. The motor and blade are slidable along alongitudinal direction so that in one instance the motor and blade arepressing against a mouth of the case for trimming and in anotherinstance the motor and cutting blade are locked in a location away fromthe case so that cases may be easily removed and inserted into the caseholder without interference from the blade.

The motor is preferably mounted on a pair of rails wherein springs urgethe motor along the longitudinal direction towards the case holder. Anoperating handle is used to push the motor against the springs and awayfrom the case holder. The trimming blade and the motor are connected bya rod that passes through a fixed collar which is fixedly mounted to abase thereby supporting the blade for accurate cutting. The rod slideslongitudinally and rotates freely in the fixed collar.

The foregoing and additional features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more readily apparent from the following detaileddescription, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a preferred embodiment of a casetrimmer of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the preferred embodiment of the casetrimmer shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a partial, enlarged cross-sectional view taken along lines3--3 in FIG. 1 showing a preferred embodiment of a case holder of thepresent invention wherein a receptacle is arranged to receive acartridge case.

FIG. 4 is a partial, enlarged cross-sectional view taken along lines4--4 in FIG. 2 showing a preferred embodiment of a case holder of thepresent invention wherein a receptacle is arranged to receive acartridge case.

FIG. 5 is a partial, enlarged cross-sectional view taken along lines3--3 in FIG. 1 of a preferred embodiment of a case holder of the presentinvention wherein a cartridge case is held in a receptacle.

FIG. 6 is a partial, enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line 4--4in FIG. 2 of a preferred embodiment of the case holder of the presentinvention wherein a cartridge case is held in a receptacle.

FIG. 7 is a partial, enlarged cross-sectional plan view taken along line7--7 of FIG. 1 showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a partial, enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line 8--8in FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a partial, elevational detail view of a preferred embodimentof the present invention as viewed along line 9--9 in FIG. 7.

FIG. 10 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along lines 7--7 in FIG.1 wherein a motor support is in a retracted and locked position.

FIG. 11 is a partial elevational detail view of the motor support ofFIG. 10 as viewed along line 11--11.

FIG. 12 is a front view of a cartridge receptacle taken along the line12--12 in FIG. 4.

FIG. 13 is partial, enlarged cross-sectional plan view of an alternativeembodiment of a case holder of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is partial, enlarged cross-sectional elevation view of thealternative embodiment of FIG. 13.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In FIGS. 1 and 2 there is shown a preferred embodiment of a case trimmer10 of the present invention. The case trimmer 10 has a case holder 12, acutting blade 14 and a motor 16 covered by motor housing 18. The caseholder 12 and blade 14 are mounted on a base 20 which in turn is mountedon a platform 22. The motor and housing are attached to depending feet24 which ride on a pair of parallel rails 26 thus allowing the motor tobe moved back and forth along a longitudinal direction 27.

The case holder 12 has a padded lever 28 that is pivotally mounted to alever support 30 which is bolted to the base 20 by a bolt 32. A leverpin 34 provides the pivotal connection between the lever 28 and thelever support 30.

Various cross-sectional views of the case holder 12 are shown in FIGS.3-6. In FIGS. 4 and 6 it can be seen that the lever 28 has a beveledsurface 36, a portion of which can press against, and move, acompression head 38. A pair of activating rods 40 are fixedly attachedto the compression head 38 for movement therewith. In addition, thecompression head has a compression shaft 42 that rides within a recess44 formed in a spring holder block 46. The block 46 is held stationaryby bolt 32 which secures it to base 20. A plurality of spring washers 48are located within the recess 44 which engage the compression shaft 42thereby urging it and compression head 38 to the left as viewed in FIGS.3-6.

As mentioned, one set of ends of the actuating rods 40 are attached tothe compression head 38. At their distal ends, the actuating rods areprovided with heads 50 for attachment to a receptacle 52. Receptacle 52is provided with a groove 54 for receiving a head 56 of a cartridge case58. The groove 54 of the shell holder 52 provides a U-shaped openinghaving its open-end up so that the case 58 can be located at the top ofthe opening and slid downward to nest within the groove 54 as isdiagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 4. The spring holder block 46 isfurther provided with a tenon 60 which is received in a bore 62 inreceptacle 52 and is long enough to partially extend into the areadefined by the groove 54.

With respect to FIGS. 3-6 the operation of the case holder 12 will nowbe explained. Beginning with an empty case holder 12, lever 28 ispressed downward rotating about lever pin 34 so that its beveled edge 36presses against the compression head 38 thereby moving the compressionhead against the biasing force of the spring washers 48 and compressingthe washers within the recess 44. The movement of the compression headmoves the elongate actuating rods 40 in the longitudinal direction 27thereby moving the receptacle 52 likewise in the longitudinal directionso that the receptacle moves away from the spring holder block 46. Inthis configuration, shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the tenon 60 only partiallyfills the bore 62. The case 58 may now be positioned at the top of theU-shaped opening defined by groove 54 and slid downward into place whereit will be aligned with the tenon 60.

After the case 58 has been inserted in the groove 54, the lever 28 canbe released so it is no longer pushing against the compression head 38.With the lever pressure relieved, the spring washers 48 urge thecompression head 38 to the left as viewed in FIGS. 3-6 which pulls theactivating rods 40 through the spring holder block 46 thereby pullingthe receptacle 52 towards the spring holder block 46. This movement ofthe receptacle causes the tenon 60 to fill the bore 62 until it contactsthe end of the cartridge head 56. Continued pressure by the springwashers 48 provides a pressure on the tenon 60 against the end of thecase 58 thereby holding it firmly in position.

The receptacle 52 may be easily changed to provide a differentreceptacle 52 having alternatively configured grooves 54 for differentconfigurations of cases 58. As shown in FIG. 12, the receptacle 52 isprovided with keyhole openings 64 for receiving the heads 50 of theactuating rods 40. Narrow portions 64a of the openings 64 engage theshaft of the rods 40 thereby holding the receptacle in place.

A preferred embodiment of the case holder 12 is shown in FIGS. 13 and 14as case holder 12'. In this embodiment, lever 110 is hingedly connectedto a housing 112 by lever pin 114. The lever acts upon a compressionblock 116 having a recess 118 that receives spring washers 120 which areretained in the recess by a spring retention block 122. The block 122has a raised retainer 124 that is received in the recess 118 so that itrides against the spring washers 120. The block 122 is fixed to the base20 by a screw 126. Another screw 128 fastens the housing 112 to theblock 122.

A pair of actuating rods 130 are threaded into the compression block116. The rods 130 extend outward from the compression block 116 and passthrough the spring retention block 122 and each terminates with a head132. A receptacle 134 mounts onto the rods 130 and is held in place bythe heads 132. Grooves 136 are provided in the receptacle for receivingthe head 56 of the cartridge case 58.

The spring washers 120 urge the compression block to the left, as viewedin FIGS. 13 and 14, which likewise urges the rods 130 to the left. Thus,the receptacle 134 is urged against the spring retention block 122.Operationally, this alternative embodiment is functionally equivalent tothe embodiment described above.

The mouth 65 of the case 58 (FIG. 10) is trimmed by the blade 14 whichis mounted on, and rotates with, a rod 66. The rod 66 slideslongitudinally and rotatably within a collar 68 that is fixedly mountedto the base 20. Rod 66 further supports an adjustable collar 70 that isused as a jig to set the depth of cut of the blade 14 into the mouth 65of the case 58. A trimmer pilot 71 (FIG. 10) is centrally located on theblade 14 and slides into the mouth of the shell 58 during the trimmingoperation. A different pilot must be used for each different caliber ofcartridge case.

The rod 66 is coupled to a drive shaft 72 of the motor 16 by a coupler74.

As stated, the motor 16 and motor cover 18 are attached to a pluralityof feet 24 which ride on a pair of rails 26. Springs 92 are located onthe rails and are arranged to urge the motor toward the case holder 12by pushing against shoulder pins 94. The rails are connected together bya frame 76 that is provided with bolt holes 78, as illustrated in FIG.8. Locking bolts 80 extend through the bolt holes 78 and have threadedends 82 that terminate within slots 84 formed in the platform 22. Nuts86 screw onto the bolts 80 for securing the frame 76 and rails 26 to theplatform 22. When the locking bolts 80 are loosened, the rails 26 andframe 76 are free to move longitudinally along the platform within theslots 84 so that the motor and blade may be adjustable longitudinally sothat the case trimmer 10 can accept and trim cases 58 of differentlengths.

Additionally, the amount of force of the blade 14 against the cartridgecase 58 can be adjusted by moving the frame 76, together with the motor16 and rails 26, along the slots 84. When the frame 76 and rails 26 arelocated furthest from the case holder 12, then the springs 92 will benearly extended when the blade 14 engages the cartridge case and thecutting force of the blade on the case will be a minimum. Conversely,when the frame and rails are located closest to the case holder 12 thenthe springs 92 will be nearly fully compressed when the blade engagesthe case and therefore the blade will exert a maximum amount of force onthe case for maximum cutting per revolution of the blade.

Also located on the frame 76 is a handle 88 that is hingedly connectedto the frame 76 by pivot 90. (See FIGS. 7 and 10.) Springs 92 arelocated on, and circumscribe, rails 26. A shoulder pin 94 is located oneach rail 26 for maintaining the location of the springs 92 and forproviding a fixed surface for the springs to press upon when they arecompressed. The purpose of the springs 92 and motor handle 88 will bedescribed below with respect to the movement of the motor 16 along therails 26.

To an underside of the motor housing 18, there is secured a dependingpin 96 and a handle lock 98 which move with the motor housing 18. Amicroswitch 99 is also provided and positioned so that when the handle88 is engaged in the handle lock, the microswitch is depressed.

It is obvious that before a case 58 can be mounted in the case holder12, the blade 14 must be retracted so that it is out of the way and doesnot interfere with the case as it is moved into position. This isaccomplished by moving the motor 16 and housing 18 along the rails 26with the handle 88. As can best be seen in FIGS. 1 and 7-11, handle 88presses against the pin 96 such that when the handle is moved to theright as viewed in FIGS. 1 and 7-11, it pushes against the pin 96 andcauses the motor 16 to ride along the rails 26 to the right, away fromthe case holder 12. Also, as the handle 88 moves to the right, itcontacts and rides along a beveled surface 101 of the handle lock 98until it reaches a distal end 100. Continued movement of handle 88 willcause it to slip past the distal end 100 where the handle 88 can come torest in a recess 102. In this position, the motor is locked intoposition at a right-hand end of the rails 26 and the blade 14 isretracted away from the case holder 12 permitting room to load a case58. Also, when the handle 88 is in the recess 102, it depresses themicroswitch 99 opening an electrical circuit between a power source (notshown) and the motor thereby shutting the motor off.

After the case 58 has been inserted in the case holder 12, the handle 88can be released from the handle lock 98 by moving it slightly to theright and downward so that it clears the distal end 100. When the handleleaves the recess 102 the microswitch 99 closes the motor circuitthereby turning the motor on. The springs 92 then urge the motor 16 tothe left by pressing against a pair of the feet 24 as shown in thefigures. The springs 92 thus move the motor 16 to the left until theblade 14 comes into contact with the mouth 65 of the case 58. Duringtrimming, the blade 14 and motor 16 continue moving to the left underthe urging of the springs 92 until the adjustable collar 70 comes intocontact with the fixed collar 68 which prevents further motion to theleft of the blade 14 and motor 16, at which time the trimming operationis complete and the motor and blade can be moved to the right by themotor handle 88. The case 58 can be removed from the case holder 12 byoperation of lever 28 which again shifts receptacle 52 to the right torelieve the holding force on the case. The case trimmer 10 is then readyto accept another case for trimming.

In view of these and the wide variety of other embodiments to which theprincipals of the invention can be applied, the illustrated embodimentsshould be considered exemplary only and not as limiting the scope of theinvention.

I claim as the invention all such modifications as may come within thescope and spirit of the following claims and equivalents thereto.

We claim:
 1. A case trimmer, comprising:(a) an elongate base defining alongitudinal axis; (b) a frame connected to the base and longitudinallyadjustable relative thereto; (c) a case holder having a receptacle forselectively receiving and holding a head of an elongate cartridge casesuch that the cartridge case is longitudinally aligned parallel with thelongitudinal axis when held in the receptacle; (d) a rotary cutter fortrimming a mouth of the cartridge case; (e) a motor having a drive shaftthat is rotatable about an axis parallel with the longitudinal axis andis coupled to the cutter for imparting rotation to the cutter andwherein the motor is slidably connected to the frame for movement alongthe longitudinal axis; and (f) a biasing member arranged to urge themotor and cutter along the longitudinal axis toward the case holder. 2.The case trimmer of claim 1 further comprising an actuating handlepivotally connected to the frame for moving the motor along thelongitudinal axis away from the case holder against the urging of thebiasing member.
 3. The case trimmer of claim 2 further comprising amotor housing, a pin and a handle lock which both depend from thehousing and which move with the motor and housing parallel to thelongitudinal axis and wherein the pin is urged against the actuatinghandle by the biasing member and located such that the handle is betweenthe pin and the handle lock when the handle is engaged in the handlelock.
 4. The case trimmer of claim 3 wherein the handle lock has aleading edge that is relatively closer to the case holder than atrailing edge and the leading edge is beveled and the trailing edgedefines a catch so that as the handle is moved away from the case holderthe handle engages the leading edge and further movement of the handlecauses the handle to move past the leading edge and engage the catchthereby fixing the location of the motor and resisting the urging of thebiasing member.
 5. The case trimmer of claim 1 further comprising atrack fixedly connected to the frame wherein the motor is slidablyconnected to the track for movement along the longitudinal axis.
 6. Thecase trimmer of claim 1 further comprising connectors for fixing thelocation of the frame on the base, wherein, at a first fixed location,the biasing member causes a first cutting force of the rotary cutter ona cartridge case held in the case holder and, at a second fixedlocation, the biasing member causes a second cutting force that isgreater than the first cutting force.
 7. A case trimmer, comprising:(a)a base; (b) a case holder having a receptacle for receiving and holdinga head of a cartridge case; (c) a motor slidably connected to the basefor constrained movement along a longitudinal direction and a motorhousing enclosing some portion of the motor and wherein the motor isurged toward the case holder by a biasing mechanism; (d) a rotary cutterrotationally driven by the motor for rotatably trimming a mouth of thecartridge case; and (e) a handle pivotally connected to the base, and apin and a handle lock depending from the motor housing wherein the pinis urged against the handle by the biasing mechanism, and pushing thehandle against the pin moves the motor away from the case holder.
 8. Thecase trimmer of claim 7, further comprising a block for engaging andholding the cartridge case received in the receptacle, the case holderhaving a lever hingedly mounted to a lever support wherein operation ofthe lever can cause the receptacle and block to shift relative to eachother to a first position to permit the receptacle to receive thecartridge case and to a second position to hold the cartridge case inthe receptacle.
 9. The case trimmer of claim 7 wherein the biasingmechanism is a helical spring.
 10. The case trimmer of claim 7 whereinthe motor has a drive shaft that is fixedly coupled with the cutter. 11.The case trimmer of claim 7 wherein the pin and handle lock are arrangedso that the handle can be positioned between the pin and the handle lockthereby fixing the location of the motor relative to the frame andresisting the urging of the biasing member.